What is Cognitive
Depression and anxiety are common psychological problems. Around 60-70% of adults will experience symptoms of depression at some time in their life while 27% of us will experience some form of anxiety. CBT is also helpful for many other psychological problems.
CBT is an educational approach with a scientific basis which can help you make better sense of your problems and understand how your problems alter your thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
For example- imagine you are having a bad day. You decide to go to the shops and on the way you see a neighbour whom you know well. The neighbour walks past and does not speak to you.
Because you are having a bad day you may think that she has deliberately ignored you and that you must have upset her in some way and you may feel guilty and upset. As a result you may phone her later and apologise for upsetting her or you may avoid her in future if you see her in the street (behaviour )
If you had not been having a bad day you may interpret the same situation in a different way. You may think that she hasn't seen you or that she had something important on her mind. If these were your thoughts you would be unlikely to experience any negative feelings and would carry on with your trip to the shops without dwelling on it (behaviour )
When depression or anxiety gets hold of us we often see the worst in day to day situations and are pulled in to a vicious circle of negative thoughts, upsetting feelings and unhelpful behaviour. CBT can help you learn how to stand back from these experiences and to achieve a more balanced outlook.
In CBT sessions you and your therapist work together as partners to explore the problem; break it down into manageable parts; identify what you want to change and how those changes can be measured. We may look at practical ways of helping you to deal differently with day to day experiences by trying out new coping skills.We may also work on unhelpful thoughts and behaviours so that you can learn to feel more in control of your feelings.Together we will explore different solutions to find those that work for you.